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TOMMY’S WISHES COME TRUE 


BOOKS BY 

THORNTON W. BURGESS 

BEDTIME STORY-BOOKS 


The Adventures of: 


1 . 

Reddy Fox 

10. 

Sammy Jay 

2. 

Johnny Chuck 

11. 

Buster Bear 

3. 

Peter Cottontail 

12. 

Old Mr. Toad 

4. 

Unc* Billy Possum 

13. 

Prickly Porky 

5. 

Mr. Mocker 

14. 

Old Man Coyote 

6. 

Jerry Muskrat 

15. 

Paddy the Beaver 

7. 

Danny Meadow 

16. 

Poor Mrs. Quack 


Mouse 

17. 

Bobby Coon 

8. 

Grandfather Frog 

18. 

Jimmy Skunk 

9. 

Chatterer, the Red 

19. 

Bob White 


Squirrel 

20. 

Ol’ Mistah Buzzard 


MOTHER WEST WIND SERIES 

1. Old Mother West Wind 

2. Mother West Wind’s Children 

3. Mother West Wind’s Animal Friends 

4. Mother West Wind’s Neighbors 

6. Mother West Wind "Why” Stories 

6. Mother West Wind "How” Stories 

7. Mother West Wind "When” Stories 

8. Mother West Wind "Where” Stories 


GREEN MEADOW SERIES 

1. Happy Jack 3. Bowser the Hound 

2. Mrs. Peter Rabbit 4. Old Granny Fox 


WISHIN G-STONE SERIES 

1. Tommy and the Wishing-Stone 

2. Tommy’s Wishes Come True 

3. Tommy’s Change of Heart 


LIGHTFOOT THE DEER 


THE BURGESS BIRD BOOK 
FOR CHILDREN 

THE BURGESS ANIMAL BOOK 
FOR CHILDREN 





n £ 


&f)t OTiSfnng=ii>tone Series; 


MY’S WISHES 
OME TRUE 

BY 

THORNTON W. BURGESS 

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WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

HARRISON CADY 


NON-REFERT 

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BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
1921 



Copyright, IQI5, IQ2I, 

By Little, Brown, and Company 

All rights reserved 


Printed in the United States of America 


SEP 22 '21 


©CI.A622918 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. 

Why Peter Rabbit Has One 
Less Enemy 

PAGE 

1 

II. 

Why Tommy Became a Friend 
of Red Squirrels . 

28 

III. 

The Pleasures and Troubles 
of Bobby Coon .... 

57 

IV. 

How Tommy Envied Honker 
the Goose 

84 


















ILLUSTRATIONS 


In the Brook Were Fish to be Caught 

(See page 66) Frontispiece 

PAGE 

With Peter He Made Visits to a Gar- 
den 15 

Reddy Fox Was Between Him and His 
Castle 25 

Tommy Sat Quite Still Watching the 
Stranger 36 

A Sudden Harsh Scream Startled Him So 
That He Dropped the Nut . 39 

Once in a While He Would Be Dis- 
covered 70 

“It Must Be Great to Be Able to Fly Like 
That” 


Honker on the Watch . 


92 

96 









TOMMY’S WISHES 
COME TRUE 

CHAPTER ONE 

WHY PETER RABBIT HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 

P ETER RABBIT was happy. 
There was no question about 
that. You had only to watch 
him a few minutes to know it. He 
couldn’t hide that happiness any more 
than the sun at midday can hide when 
there are no clouds in the sky. Happi- 
ness seemed to fairly shoot from his long 
heels as they twinkled merrily this way 
and that way through the dear Old 
Briar-patch. 

Peter was doing crazy things. He 
was so happy that he was foolish. Hap- 


2 tommy’s wishes come true 

piness, you know, is the only excuse for 
foolishness. And Peter was foolish, 
very, very foolish. He would suddenly 
jump into the air, kick his long heels, 
dart off to one side, change his mind and 
dart the other way, run in a circle, and 
then abruptly plump himself down 
under a bush and sit as still as if he 
couldn’t move. Then, without any 
warning at all, he would cut up some 
other funny antic. 

He was so foolish and so funny that 
finally Tommy, who, unseen by Peter, 
was watching him, laughed aloud. Per- 
haps Peter doesn’t like being laughed 
at. Most people don’t. It may be 
Peter was a little bit uncertain as to 
why he was being laughed at. Anyway, 
with a sudden thump of his stout hind- 
feet, he scampered out of sight along 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 3 

one of his private little paths which led 
into the very thickest tangle in the dear 
Old Briar-patch. 

‘Til have to come over here with my 
gun and get that rabbit for my dinner,” 
said Tommy, as he trudged homeward. 
“Probably though, if I have a gun, I 
won’t see him at all. It’s funny how a 
fellow is forever seeing things when he 
hasn’t got a gun, and when he goes 
hunting he never sees anything!” 

Tommy had come to the great gray 
stone which was his favorite resting- 
place. He sat down from sheer force 
of habit. Somehow, he never could get 
past that stone without sitting on it for 
a few minutes. It seemed to just beg 
to be sat on. He was still thinking of 
Peter Rabbit. 

“I wonder what made him feel so 


4 tommy’s wishes come true 
frisky,” thought Tommy. Then he 
laughed aloud once more as he remem- 
bered how comical Peter had looked. It 
must be fun to feel as happy as all that. 
Without once thinking of where he was, 
Tommy exclaimed aloud: “I declare, I 
wish I were a rabbit!” 

He was. His wish had come true. 
Just as quick as that, he found himself 
a rabbit. You see, he had been sitting 
on the wishing-stone. If he had re- 
membered, perhaps, he wouldn’t have 
wished. But he had forgotten, and 
now here he was, looking as if he might 
very well be own brother to Peter 
Rabbit. 

Not only did he look like Peter, but 
he felt like him. Anyway, he felt a 
crazy impulse to run and jump and do 
foolish things, and he did them. He 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 5 

just couldn’t help doing them. It was 
his way of showing how good he felt, 
just as shouting is a boy’s way, and sing- 
ing is the way of a bird. 

But in the very midst of one of his 
wildest whirls, he heard a sound that 
brought him up short, as still as a stone. 
It was the sound of a heavy thump, and 
it came from the direction of the Old 
Briar-patch. Tommy didn’t need to be 
told that it was a signal, a signal from 
Peter Rabbit to all other rabbits within 
hearing distance. He didn’t know just 
the meaning of that signal, and, because 
he didn’t, he just sat still. 

Now it happens that that was exactly 
what that signal meant — to sit tight and 
not move. Peter had seen something 
that to him looked very suspicious. So 
on general principles he had signaled, 


6 tommy’s wishes come true 
and then had himself sat perfectly still 
until he should discover if there was any 
real danger. 

Tommy didn’t know this, but being 
a rabbit now, he felt as a rabbit feels, 
and, from the second he heard that 
thump, he was as frightened as he had 
been happy a minute before. And being 
frightened, yet not knowing of what he 
was afraid, he sat absolutely still, listen- 
ing with all his might, and looking this 
way and that, as best he could, without 
moving his head. And all the time, he 
worked his nose up and down, up and 
down, as all rabbits do, and tested the 
air for strange smells. 

Presently Tommy heard behind him a 
sound that filled him with terrible fear. 
It was a loud sniff, sniff. Rolling his 
eyes back so that he could look behind 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 7 

without turning his head, he saw a dog 
sniffing and snuffing in the grass. Now 
that dog wasn’t very big as dogs go, but 
he was so much bigger than even the 
largest rabbit that to Tommy he looked 
like a giant. The terrible fear that filled 
him clutched at Tommy’s heart until it 
seemed as if it would stop beating. 

What should he do, sit still or run? 
Somehow he was afraid to do either. 
Just then the matter was settled for him. 
“Thump, thump , thump!” the signal 
came along the ground from the Old 
Briar-patch, and almost any one would 
have known just by the short sharp 
sound that those thumps meant “Run!” 
At just the same instant, the dog caught 
the scent of Tommy full and strong. 
With a roar of his great voice he sprang 
forward, his nose in Tommy’s tracks. 


8 tommy’s wishes come true 

Tommy waited no longer. With a 
great bound he leaped forward in the 
direction of the Old Briar-patch. How 
he did run! A dozen bounds brought 
him to the Old Briar-patch, and there 
just before him was a tiny path under 
the brambles. He didn’t stop to ques- 
tion how it came there or who had made 
it. He dodged in and scurried along it 
to the very middle of the Old Briar- 
patch. Then he stopped to listen and 
look. 

The dog had just reached the edge of 
the briars. He knew where Tommy had 
gone. Of course he knew. His nose 
told him that. He thrust his head in at 
the entrance to the little path and tried 
to crawl in. But the sly old brambles 
tore his long tender ears, and he yelped 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 9 
with pain now instead of with the excite- 
ment of the chase. Then he backed out, 
whining and yelping. He ran around 
the edge of the Old Briar-patch looking 
for some place where he could get in 
more comfortably. But there was no 
place, and after a while he gave up and 
went off. 

Tommy sat right where he was until 
he was quite sure that the dog had gone. 
When he was quite sure, he started to 
explore the dear Old Briar-patch, for he 
was very curious to see what it is was like 
in there. He found little paths leading 
in all directions. Some of them led 
right through the very thickest tangles 
of ugly looking brambles, and Tommy 
found that he could run along these with 
never a fear of a single scratch. And 
as he hopped along, he knew that here 


10 tommy’s wishes come true 

he was safe, absolutely safe from most 
of his enemies, for no one bigger than 
he could possibly get through those 
briars without being terribly scratched. 

So it was with a very comfortable 
feeling that Tommy peered out through 
the brambles and watched that annoying 
dog trot off in disgust. He felt that 
never, so long as he was within running 
distance of the dear Old Briar-patch, 
would he be afraid of a dog. 

Right into the midst of his pleasant 
thoughts broke a rude “Thump, thump , 
thump!” It wasn’t a danger-signal this 
time. That is, it didn’t mean “Run for 
your life.” Tommy was very sure of 
that. And yet it might be a kind of 
danger-signal, too. It all depended on 
what Tommy decided to do. 

There it was again — “Thump, thump , 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 11 

thump!” It had an ugly, threatening 
sound. Tommy knew just as well as if 
there had been spoken words instead of 
mere thumps on the ground that he was 
being warned to get out of the Old 
Briar-patch — that he had no right there, 
because it belonged to some one else. 

But Tommy had no intention of leav- 
ing such a fine place, such a beautifully 
safe place, unless he had to, and no mere 
thumps on the ground could make him 
believe that. He could thump himself. 
He did. Those long hind-feet of his 
were just made for thumping. When he 
hit the ground with them, he did it with 
a will, and the thumps he made sounded 
just as ugly and threatening as the other 
fellow’s, and he knew that the other 
fellow knew exactly what they meant — 


12 tommy’s wishes come true 
‘Til do as I please ! Put me out if you 
can!” 

It was very clear that this was just 
what the other proposed to do if his 
thumps meant anything at all. Pres- 
ently Tommy saw a trim, neat-looking 
rabbit in a little open space, and it was 
something of a relief to find that he was 
about Tommy’s own size. 

“If I can’t whip him, he certainly 
can’t whip me,” thought Tommy, and 
straightway thumped, “I’m coming,” in 
reply to the stranger’s angry demand 
that he come out and fight. 

Now the stranger was none other than 
Peter Rabbit, and he was very indig- 
nant. He considered that he owned the 
dear Old Briar-patch. He was perfectly 
willing that any other rabbit should find 
safety there in time of danger, but when 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 13 

the danger was past, they must get out. 
Tommy hadn’t; therefore he must be 
driven out. 

Now if Tommy had been himself, 
instead of a rabbit, never, never would 
he have dreamed of fighting as he was 
preparing to fight now — by biting and 
kicking, particularly kicking. But for 
a rabbit, kicking was quite the correct 
and proper thing. In fact, it was the 
only way to fight. 

So instead of coming together head- 
on, Tommy and Peter approached each 
other in queer little half-sidewise 
rushes, each watching for a chance to 
use his stout hind-feet. Suddenly Peter 
rushed, jumped, and — well, when 
Tommy picked himself up, he felt very 
much as a boy feels when he has been 
tackled and thrown in a football game. 


14 tommy’s wishes come true 

Certainly Peter’s hind-legs were in good 
working order. 

Just a minute later Tommy’s chance 
came and Peter was sent sprawling. 
Like a flash, Tommy was after him, 
biting and pulling out little bunches of 
soft fur. So they fought until at last 
they were so out of wind and so tired 
that there was no fight left in either. 
Then they lay and panted for breath, 
and quite suddenly they forgot their 
quarrel. Each knew that he couldn’t 
whip the other ; and, that being so, what 
was the use of fighting? 

“I suppose this Old Briar-patch is big 
enough for both of us,” said Peter, after 
a little. 

‘Til live on one side, and you live on 
the other,” replied Tommy. And so it 
was agreed. 



WITH PETER HE MADE VISITS TO A GARDEN 



PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 1 J 

In three things Tommy found that, 
as a rabbit, he was not unlike Tommy 
the boy. These three were appetite, 
curiosity, and a decided preference for 
pleasure rather than work. Tommy felt 
as if he lived to eat instead of eating to 
live. He wanted to eat most of the time. 
It seemed as if he never could get his 
stomach really full. 

There was one satisfaction, and that 
was that he never had to look very far 
for something to eat. There were clover 
and grass just outside the Briar-patch, — 
all he wanted for the taking. There 
were certain tender-leaved plants for a 
change, not to mention tender bark from 
young trees and bushes. With Peter he 
made occasional visits to a not too dis- 
tant garden, where they fairly reveled 
in goodies. 


16 tommy’s wishes come true 

These visits were in the nature of 
adventure. It seemed to Tommy that 
not even Danny Meadow-Mouse had so 
many enemies as he and Peter had. 
They used to talk it over sometimes. 

“It isn’t fair,” said Peter in a grieved 
tone. “We don’t hurt anybody. We 
don’t do the least bit of harm to any 
one, and yet it isn’t safe for us to play 
two minutes outside the dear Old Briar- 
patch without keeping watch. No, sir, 
it isn’t fair! There’s Redtail the Hawk 
watching this very minute from way up 
there in the sky. He looks as if he were 
just sailing round and round for the fun 
of it; but he isn’t. He’s just watching 
for you or me to get one too many jumps 
away from these old briars. Then down 
he’ll come like a shot. Now what harm 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 17 
have we ever done Redtail or any of his 
family? Tell me that.” 

Of course Tommy couldn’t tell him 
that, and so Peter went on: “When I 
was a baby, I came very near to finding 
out just how far it is from Mr. Black- 
snake’s mouth to his stomach by the 
inside passage, and all that saved me 
was the interference of a boy, who set 
me free. Now that I’m grown, I’m not 
afraid of Mr. Blacksnake, — though I 
keep out of his way, — but I have to keep 
on the watch all the time for that boy!” 

“The same one?” asked Tommy. 

“The very same!” replied Peter. 
“He’s forever setting his dog after me 
and trying to get a shot at me with his 
terrible gun. Yet I’ve never done him 
any harm, — nor the dog either.” 


18 tommy’s wishes come true 
“It’s very curious,” said Tommy, not 
knowing what else to say. 

“It seems to me there ought to be 
some time when it is reasonably safe for 
an honest rabbit to go abroad,” contin- 
ued Peter, who, now that he was started, 
seemed bound to make the worst of his 
troubles. “At night, I cannot even dance 
in the moonlight without all the time 
looking one way for Reddy Fox and 
another for Hooty the Owl.” 

“It’s a good thing that the Briar-patch 
is always safe,” said Tommy, because he 
could think of nothing else to say. 

“But it isn’t!” snapped Peter. “I 
wish to goodness it was ! Now there’s — 
listen!” Peter sat very still with his 
ears pricked forward. Something very 
like a look of fear grew and grew in his 
eyes. Tommy sat quite as still and lis- 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 19 
tened with all his might. Presently he 
heard a faint rustling. It sounded as if 
it was in one of the little paths through 
the Briar-patch. Yes, it surely was! 
And it was drawing nearer! Tommy 
gathered himself together for instant 
flight, and a strange fear gripped his 
heart. 

“It’s Billy Mink!” gasped Peter. “If 
he follows you, don’t run into a hole in 
the ground, or into a hollow log, what- 
ever you do! Keep going! He’ll get 
tired after a while. There he is — run !” 

Peter bounded off one way and 
Tommy another. After a few jumps, 
Tommy squatted to make sure whether 
or not he was being followed. He saw 
a slim, dark form slipping through the 
brambles, and he knew that Billy Mink 
was following Peter. Tommy couldn’t 


20 tommy’s wishes come true 

help a tiny sigh of relief. He was sorry 
for Peter; but Peter knew every path 
and twist and turn, while he didn’t. It 
was a great deal better that Peter should 
be the one to try to fool Billy Mink. 

So Tommy sat perfectly still and 
watched. He saw Peter twist and turn, 
run in a circle, criss-cross, run back on 
his own trail, and make a break by leap- 
ing far to one side. He saw Billy Mink 
follow every twist and turn, his nose in 
Peter’s tracks. When he reached the 
place where Peter had broken the trail, 
he ran in ever widening circles until he 
picked it up again, and once more Peter 
was on the run. 

Tommy felt little cold shivers chase 
up and down his back as he watched how 
surely and persistently Billy Mink fol- 
lowed. And then — he hardly knew how 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 21 
it happened — Peter had jumped right 
over him, and there was Billy Mink 
coming! There was nothing to do but 
run, and Tommy ran. He doubled and 
twisted and played all the tricks he had 
seen Peter play, and then at last, when 
he was beginning to get quite tired, he 
played the same trick on Peter that had 
seemed so dreadful when Peter played it 
on him; he led Billy Mink straight to 
where Peter was sitting, and once more 
Peter was the hunted. 

But Billy Mink was getting tired. 
After a little, he gave up and went in 
quest of something more easily caught. 

Peter came back to where Tommy was 
sitting. 

“Billy Mink’s a tough customer to 
get rid of alone, but, with some one to 
change off with, it is no trick at all!” 


22 TOMMY’S WISHES COME TRUE 

said he. “It wouldn’t work so well with 
his cousin, Shadow the Weasel. He’s 
the one I am afraid of. I think we should 
be safer if we had some new paths ; what 
do you think?” 

Tommy confessed that he thought so 
too. It would have been very much 
easier to have dodged Billy Mink if 
there had been a few more cross paths. 

“We better make them before we 
need them more than we did this time,” 
said Peter; and, as this was just plain, 
sound, rabbit common sense, Tommy 
was forced to agree. 

And so it was that he learned that a 
rabbit must work if he would live long 
and be happy. He didn’t think of it in 
just this way as he patiently cut paths 
through the brambles and tangles of 
bush and vine. It was fear, just plain 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 23 

fear, that was driving him. And even 
this drove him to work only by spells. 
Between times, when he wasn’t eating, 
he sat squatting under a bush just lazily 
dreaming, but always ready to run for 
his life. 

In the moonlight he and Peter loved 
to gambol and play in some open space 
where there was room to jump and 
dance; but, even in the midst of these 
joyous times, they must need sit up 
every minute or so to stop, look, and 
listen for danger. It was at night, too, 
that they wandered farthest from the 
Old Briar-patch. 

Once they met Bobby Coon, and Peter 
warned Tommy never to allow Bobby 
to get him cornered. And once they met 
Jimmy Skunk, who paid no attention to 
them at all, but went right on about his 


24 tommy’s wishes come true 

business. It was hard to believe that 
he was another to be warned against; 
but so Peter said, and Peter ought to 
know if anybody did. 

So Tommy learned to be ever on the 
watch. He learned to take note of his 
neighbors. He could tell by the sound 
of his voice when Sammy Jay was 
watching Reddy Fox, and when he saw 
a hunter. When Blacky the Crow was 
on guard, he knew that he was reason- 
ably safe from surprise. At least once 
a day, but more often several times a 
day, he had a narrow escape. But he 
grew used to it, and, as soon as a fright 
was over, he forgot it. It was the only 
way to do. 

As he learned more and more how to 
watch, and to care for himself, he grew 
bolder. Curiosity led him farther and 



REDDY FOX WAS BETWEEN HIM AND HIS CASTLE 



PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 2^ 

farther from the Briar-patch. And then, 
one day he discovered that Reddy Fox 
was between him and it. There was 
nothing to do but to run and twist and 
double and dodge. Every trick he had 
learned he tried in vain. He was in the 
open, and Reddy was too wise to be 
fooled. 

He was right at Tommy’s heels now, 
and with every jump Tommy expected 
to feel those cruel white teeth. Just 
ahead was a great rock. If he could 
reach that, perhaps there might be a 
crack in it big enough for a frightened 
little rabbit to squeeze into, or a hole 
under it where he might find safety. 

He was almost up to it. Would he be 
able to make it? One jump ! He could 
hear Reddy panting. Two jumps ! He 
could feel Reddy’s breath. Three 


26 tommy’s wishes come true 
jumps! He was on the rock! and — 
slowly Tommy rubbed his eyes. Reddy 
Fox was nowhere to be seen. Of course 
not ! No fox would be foolish enough to 
come near a boy sitting in plain sight. 
Tommy looked over to the Old Briar- 
patch. That at least was real. Slowly 
he walked over to it. Peering under the 
bushes, he saw Peter Rabbit squatting 
perfectly still, yet ready to run. 

“You don’t need to, Peter,” said he. 
“You don’t need to. You can cut one 
boy off that long list of enemies you are 
always watching for. You see, I know 
just how you feel, Peter!” 

He walked around to the other side 
of the Briar-patch, and, stooping down, 
thumped the ground once with his hand. 
There was an answering thump from the 


PETER HAS ONE LESS ENEMY 27 

spot where he had seen Peter Rabbit. 
Tommy smiled. 

“We’re friends, Peter,” said he, “and 
it’s all on account of the wishing-stone. 
I’ll never hunt you again. My! I 
wouldn’t be a rabbit for anything in the 
world. Being a boy is good enough for 


CHAPTER TWO 


WHY TOMMY BECAME A FRIEND OF RED 
SQUIRRELS 

I DON’T see what Sis wants to 
string this stuff all over the house 
for, just because it happens to be 
Christmas!” grumbled Tommy, as he 
sat on a big stone and idly kicked at a 
pile of beautiful ground-pine and fra- 
grant balsam boughs. “It’s the best day 
for skating we’ve had yet, and here I am 
missing a whole morning of it, and so 
tired that most likely I won’t feel like 
going this afternoon!” 

Now Tommy knew perfectly well 
that if his mother said that he could go, 
nothing could keep him away from the 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 2Q 

pond that afternoon. He was a little 
tired, perhaps, but not nearly so tired 
as he tried to think he was. Gathering 
Christmas greens was work of course. 
But when you come right down to it, 
there is work about almost everything, 
even skating. The chief difference 
between work and pleasure is the differ- 
ence between ‘must ’ 5 and “want to.” 
When you must do a thing it becomes 
work; when you want to do a thing it 
becomes pleasure. 

Right down deep inside, where his 
honest self lives, Tommy was glad that 
there was going to be a green wreath in 
each of the front windows, and that over 
the doors and pictures there would be 
sweet-smelling balsam. Without them, 
why, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmasy 
at all ! And really it had been fun gath- 


30 tommy’s wishes come true 
ering those greens. He wouldn’t admit 
it, but it had. He wouldn’t have missed 
it for the world. It was only that it had 
to be done just when he wanted to do 
something else. And so he tried to feel 
grieved and persecuted, and to forget 
that Christmas was only two days off. 

He sat on the big gray stone and 
looked across the Green Meadows, no 
longer green but covered with the whit- 
est and lightest of snow-blankets, across 
the Old Pasture, not one whit less beau- 
tiful, to the Green Forest, and he sighed. 
It was a deep, heavy sigh. It was the 
sigh of a self-made martyr. 

As if in reply, he heard the sharp voice 
of Chatterer the Red Squirrel. It rang 
out clear and loud on the frosty air, and 
it was very plain that, whatever troubles 
others might have, Chatterer was very 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 31 

well satisfied with the world in general 
and himself in particular. Just now he 
was racing along the fence, stopping at 
every post to sit up and tell all the world 
that he was there and didn’t care who 
knew it. Presently his sharp eyes spied 
Tommy. 

Chatterer stopped short in the middle 
of a rail and looked at Tommy very 
hard. Then he barked at him, jerking 
his tail with every syllable. Tommy 
didn’t move. 

Chatterer jumped down from the 
fence and came nearer. Every foot or so 
he paused and barked, and his bark was 
such a funny mixture of nervousness 
and excitement and curiosity and sauci- 
ness, not to say impudence, that finally 
Tommy laughed right out. He just 
couldn’t help it. 


32 tommy’s wishes come true 

Back to the fence rushed Chatterer, 
and scampered up to the top of a post. 
Once sure of the safety of this retreat, 
he faced Tommy and began to scold as 
fast as his tongue could go. Of course 
Tommy couldn’t understand what Chat- 
terer was saying, but he could guess. 
He was telling Tommy just what he 
thought of a boy who would sit moping 
on such a beautiful day, and only two 
days before Christmas at that! 

My, how his tongue did fly! When 
he had had his say to the full, he gave 
a final whisk of his tail and scampered 
off in the direction of the Old Orchard. 
And, as he went, it seemed to Tommy 
as if he looked back with the sauciest 
kind of a twinkle in his eyes, as much 
as to say, “You deserve all I’ve said, 
but I don’t really mean it!” 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 33 

Tommy watched him, a lively little 
red spot against the white background, 
and, as he watched, the smile gradually 
faded away. It never would do at all 
to go home in good spirits after raising 
such a fuss as he had when he started 
out. So, to make himself feel as badly 
as he felt that he ought to feel, Tommy 
sighed dolefully. 

“Oh, but you’re lucky!” said he, as 
Chatterer’s sharp voice floated over to 
him from the Old Orchard. “You don’t 
have to do a blessed thing unless you 
want to! All you have to do is to eat 
and sleep and have a good time. It 
must be fun. I wish I were a squirrel !” 

Right then something happened. It 
happened all in a flash, just as it 
had happened to Tommy before. One 
minute he was a boy, a discontented 


34 tommy’s wishes come true 

boy, sitting on a big gray stone on the 
edge of the Green Meadows, and the 
next minute he wasn’t a boy at all ! You 
see, when he made that wish, he had 
quite forgotten that he was sitting on 
the wishing-stone. Now he no longer 
had to guess at what Chatterer was 
saying. Not a bit of it. He knew. 

He talked the same language himself. 
In short, he was a red squirrel, and in 
two minutes had forgotten that he ever 
had been a boy. 

How good it felt to be free and know 
that he could do just as he pleased ! His 
first impulse was to race over to the Old 
Orchard and make the acquaintance of 
Chatterer. Then he thought better of 
it. Something inside him seemed to 
tell him that he had no business there — 
that the Old Orchard was not big 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 33 

enough for two red squirrels, and that, 
as Chatterer had gone there first, it really 
belonged to him in a way. 

He felt quite sure of it when he had 
replied to Chatterer’s sharp voice, and 
had been told in no uncertain tones that 
the best thing he could do would be to 
run right back where he had come from. 

Of course, he couldn’t do that, so he 
decided to do the next best thing — run 
over to the Green Forest and see what 
there was to do there. He hopped up on 
the rail fence and whisked along the top 
rail. 

What fun it was! He didn’t have a 
care in the world. All he had to do was 
to eat, drink, and have a good time. 
Ha ! who was that coming along behind 
him? Was it Chatterer? It looked 
something like him, yet different some- 


36 tommy’s wishes come true 

how. Tommy sat quite still watch- 
ing the stranger, and, as he watched, a 
curious terror began to creep over him. 

The stranger wasn’t Chatterer! No, 
indeed, he wasn’t even a squirrel ! He 
was too long and slim, and his tail was 
different. He was Shadow the Weasel ! 
Tommy didn’t have to be told that. 
Although he never had seen Shadow 
before, he knew without being told. For 
a minute he couldn’t move. Then, his 
heart beating with fear until it seemed 
as if it would burst, he fled along the 
fence toward the Green Forest, and now 
he didn’t stop at the posts when he came 
to them. His one thought was to get 
away, away as far as ever he could; for 
in the eyes of Shadow the Weasel he had 
seen death. 

Up the nearest tree he raced and hid, 



TOMMY SAT QUITE STILL WATCHING THE 
STRANGER 

























































































A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 37 

clinging close to the trunk near the top, 
staring down with eyes fairly bulging 
with fright. Swiftly, yet without seem- 
ing to hurry, Shadow the Weasel came 
straight to the tree in which Tommy 
was hiding, his nose in Tommy’s tracks 
in the way that a hound follows a rabbit 
or a fox. At the foot of the tree he 
stopped just a second and looked up. 
Then he began to climb. 

At the first scratch of his claws on the 
ba k Tommy raced out along a branch 
and leaped across to the next tree. 
Then, in a great panic, he went on from 
tree to tree, taking desperate chances in 
his long leaps. In the whole of his little 
being he had room for but one feeling, 
and that was fear — fear of that savage 
pitiless pursuer. 

He had run a long way before he 


38 tommy’s wishes come true 
realized that he was no longer being fol- 
lowed. The fact is, Shadow had found 
other game, easier to catch, and had 
given up. Now, just as soon as Tommy 
realized that Shadow the Weasel was 
no longer on his track, he straightway 
forgot his fear. In fact it was just as if 
he never had had a fright, for that is 
the law of Mother Nature with her little 
people of the wild. So presently Tommy 
was once more as happy and care-free as 
before. 

In a big chestnut-tree just ahead of 
him he ccMd see Happy Jack the Gray 
Squirrel; and Happy Jack was very 
busy about something. Perhaps he had 
a storehouse there. The very thought 
made Tommy hungry. Once more he 
hid, but this time not in fear. He hid 
so that he could watch Happy Jack. 



A SUDDEN HARSH SCREAM STARTLED HIM SO 
THAT HE DROPPED THE NUT 







A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 39 

Not a sound did he make as he peered 
out from his hiding-place. 

Happy Jack was a long time in that 
hollow limb ! It seemed as if he never 
would come out. So Tommy started on 
to look for more mischief, for he was 
bubbling over with good spirits and felt 
that he must do something. 

Presently, quite by accident, he dis- 
covered another hoard of nuts, mostly 
acorns, neatly tucked away in a crotch 
of a big tree. Of course he sampled 
them. “What fun!” thought he. “I 
don’t know who they belong to, and I 
don’t care. From now on, they are 
going to belong to me.” 

He started to carry them away, but a 
sudden harsh scream close to him 
startled him so that he dropped the nut 
he had in his mouth. He dodged behind 


40 tommy’s wishes come true 
the trunk of the tree just in time to 
escape the dash of an angry bird in a 
brilliant blue suit with white and black 
trimmings. 

“Thief! thief! thief! Leave my 
acorns alone!” screamed Sammy Jay, 
anger making his voice harsher than 
ever. 

Round and round the trunk of the 
tree Tommy dodged, chattering back in 
reply to the sharp tongue of the angry 
bird. It was exciting without being very 
dangerous. After a while, however, it 
grew tiresome, and, watching his chance, 
he slipped over to another tree and into 
a hole made by Drummer the Wood- 
pecker. Sammy Jay didn’t see where 
he had disappeared, and, after hunting 
in vain, gave up and began to carry his 
acorns away to a new hiding-place. 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 41 

Tommy’s eyes sparkled with mischief 
as he watched. By and by he would 
have a hunt for it! It would be fun! 

When Sammy Jay had hidden the 
last acorn and flown away, Tommy came 
out. He didn’t feel like hunting for 
those acorns just then, so he scampered 
up in a tall hemlock-tree, and, just out 
of sheer good spirits and because he 
could see no danger near, he called 
sharply that all within hearing might 
know that he was about. 

Almost instantly he received a re- 
ply from not far away. It was an angry 
warning to keep away from that part of 
the Green Forest, because he had no 
business there! It was the voice of 
Chatterer. Tommy replied just as an- 
grily that he would stay if he wanted 
to. Then they barked and chattered at 


42 tommy’s wishes come true 

each other for a long time. Gradually 
Chatterer came nearer. Finally he was 
in the very next tree. He stopped there 
long enough to tell Tommy all that he 
would do to him when he caught him, 
and at the end he jumped across to 
Tommy’s tree. 

Tommy waited no longer. He 
wasn’t ready to fight. In the first place 
he knew that Chatterer probably had 
lived there a long time, and so was 
partly right in saying that Tommy had 
no business there. Then Chatterer 
looked a little the bigger and stronger. 
So Tommy nimbly ran out on a branch 
and leaped across to the next tree. In 
a flash Chatterer was after him, and then 
began a most exciting race through the 
tree-tops. 

Tommy found that there were regular 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 43 

squirrel highways through the tree-tops, 
and along these he raced at top speed, 
Chatterer at his heels, scolding and 
threatening. When he reached the 
edge of the Green Forest, Tommy darted 
down the last tree, across the open space 
to the old stone wall and along this, 
Chatterer following. 

Suddenly the anger in Chatterer’s 
voice changed to a sharp cry of warning. 
Tommy scrambled into a crevice be- 
tween two stones without stopping to 
inquire what the trouble was. When 
he peeped out, he saw a great bird sail- 
ing back and forth. In a few minutes 
it alighted on a near-by tree, and sat 
there so still that, if Tommy had not 
seen it alight, he never would have 
known it was there. 

“Mr. Goshawk nearly got you that 


44 tommy’s wishes come true 

time,” said a voice very near at hand. 
Tommy turned to find Chatterer peep- 
ing out from another crevice in the old 
wall. “It won’t be safe for us to show 
ourselves until he leaves,” continued 
Chatterer. “It’s getting so that an hon- 
est squirrel needs eyes in the back of 
his head to keep his skin whole, not to 
mention living out his natural life. 
Hello ! here comes a boy, and that means 
more trouble. There’s one good thing 
about it, and that is he’ll frighten away 
that hawk.” 

Tommy looked, and sure enough there 
was a boy, and in his hands was an air- 
rifle. Tommy didn’t know what it was, 
but Chatterer did. 

“I wish that hawk would hurry up 
and fly so that we can run!” he sput- 
tered. “The thing that boy carries 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 45 

throws things, and they hurt. It isn’t 
best to let him get too near when he has 
that with him. He seems to think it’s 
fun to hurt us. I’d just like to bite him 
once and see if he thought that was fun ! 
There goes that hawk. Come on now, 
we’ve got to run for it!” 

Chatterer led the way and Tommy 
followed. He was frightened, but there 
wasn’t that terror which had possessed 
him when Shadow the Weasel was after 
him. Something struck sharply against 
the wall just behind him. It frightened 
him into greater speed. Something 
struck just in front of him, and then 
something hit him so hard that just for 
a second he nearly lost his balance. It 
hurt dreadfully. 

“Hurrah!” shouted the boy, “I hit 
him that time!” Then the boy started 


46 tommy’s wishes come true 
to run after them so as to get a closer 
shot. 

“We’ll get up in the top of that big 
hemlock-tree and he won’t be able to 
see us,” panted Chatterer. “Did he hit 
you 4 ? That’s too bad. It might have 
been worse though. If he had had one 
of those things that make a big noise 
and smoke we might not either of us be 
here now. 

“Boys are hateful things. I don’t see 
what fun they get out of frightening 
and hurting such little folks as you and 
me. They’re brutes ! That’s what they 
are! When we get across that little 
open place, we can laugh at him. Come 
on now!” 

Down from the end of the old wall 
Chatterer jumped and raced across to 
the foot of a big hemlock-tree, Tommy 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 47 

at his heels. Up the tree they ran and 
hid close to the trunk where the branches 
were thick. They could peer down and 
see the boy, but he couldn’t see them. 
He walked around the tree two or three 
times, and then shot up into the top to 
try to frighten the squirrels. 

“Don’t move!” whispered Chatterer. 
“He doesn’t see us.” 

Tommy obeyed, although he felt as if 
he must run. His heart seemed to jump 
every time a bullet spatted in among the 
branches. It was dreadful to sit there 
and do nothing while being shot at, and 
not know but that the very next minute 
one of those little lead shot would hit. 
Tommy knew just how it would hurt 
if it did hit. 

Presently the boy gave up and went 
off to torment some one else. No sooner 


48 tommy’s wishes come true 
was his back fairly turned than Chat- 
terer began to scold and jeer at him. 
Tommy joined him. It was just as if 
there never had been any danger. If 
that boy could have understood what 
they said, his ears would have burned. 

Then Chatterer showed Tommy just 
what part of the Green Forest he claimed 
as his own, and also showed him a part 
that had belonged to another squirrel 
to whom something had happened, and 
suggested that Tommy take that for his. 
It wasn’t as good as Chatterer’s, but still 
it would do very well. Tommy took 
possession at once. Each agreed not 
to intrude on the other’s territory. On 
common ground, that didn’t belong to 
either of them, they would be the best 
of friends, but Tommy knew that if he 
went into Chatterer’s part of the Green 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 49 

Forest, he would have to fight, and he 
made up his mind that if any other squir- 
rel came into his part of the Green For- 
est, there would be a fight. Suddenly 
he was very jealous of his new posses- 
sion. He was hardly willing to leave it, 
when Chatterer suggested a visit to a 
near-by corn-crib for a feast of yellow 
corn. 

Chatterer led the way. Tommy 
found that he was quite lame from the 
shot which had hit him, but he was soon 
racing after Chatterer again. 

Along the old stone wall, then along a 
fence, up a maple-tree, and from there 
to the roof of the corn-crib, they scam- 
pered. Chatterer knew just where to 
get inside, and in a few minutes they 
were stuffing themselves with yellow 
corn. When they had eaten all that 


50 tommy’s wishes come true 
they could hold, they stuffed their cheeks 
full and started back the way they had 
come. 

Tommy went straight to his own part 
of the Green Forest, and there he hid 
his treasure, some in a hollow stump, and 
some under a little pile of leaves be- 
tween the roots of a tree. All the time 
he watched sharply to make sure that 
no one saw him. While looking for new 
hiding-places, his nose told him to dig. 
There, buried under the leaves, he found 
nuts hidden by the one who had lived 
there before him. There must be many 
more hidden there, and it would be great 
fun hunting for them. Doubtless he 
would find as many as if he had hidden 
them himself, for he had seen that Chat- 
terer didn’t know where he had put a 
tenth part of the things he had hidden. 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 

He just trusted to his nose to help him 
get them again. 

He found a splendid nest made of 
leaves and strips of inner bark in the 
hollow stub of a big branch of a chest- 
nut-tree, and he made up his mind that 
there was where he would sleep. Then 
he ran over to see Chatterer again. He 
found him scolding at a cat who watched 
him with yellow, unblinking eyes. 
Chatterer would run down the trunk of 
the tree almost to the ground, and there 
scold and call names as fast as his tongue 
could go. Then he would run back up 
to the lowest branch and scold from 
there. The next time he would go a lit- 
tle farther down. Finally he leaped 
to the ground, and raced across to an- 
other tree. The cat sprang, but was 
just too late. Chatterer jeered at her. 


52 tommy’s wishes come true 
Then he began the same thing over 
again, and kept at it until finally the 
cat gave up and left in disgust. It had 
been exciting, but Tommy shivered at 
the thought of what might have hap- 
pened. 

“Ever try that with a fox?” asked 
Chatterer. 

“No,” replied Tommy. 

“I have!” boasted Chatterer. “But 
I’ve seen squirrels caught doing it,” he 
said. “Still, I suppose one may as well 
be caught by a fox as by a hawk.” 

“Did you see that weasel this morn- 
ing?” asked Tommy. 

Chatterer actually shivered as he re- 
plied: “Yes, I saw him after you. It’s 
a wonder he didn’t get you. You’re 
lucky! I was lucky myself this morn- 
ing, for a mink went right past where I 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 53 

was hiding. Life is nothing but one 
jump after another these days. It seems 
as if, when one has worked as hard as 
I did last fall to store up enough food 
to keep me all winter, I ought to be al- 
lowed to enjoy it in comfort. 

“Those who sleep all winter, like 
Johnny Chuck, have a mighty easy time 
of it. They don’t know when they are 
well off. Still, I’d hate to miss all the 
excitement and fun of life. I would 
rather jump for my life twenty times a 
day as I have to, and know that I’m 
alive, than to be alive and not know it. 
See that dog down there? I hate dogs ! 
I’m going to tell him so.” 

Off raced Chatterer to bark and scold 
at a little black-and-white dog which 
paid no attention to him at all. The 
shadows were creeping through the trees, 


54 tommy’s wishes come true 
and Tommy began to think of his nest. 
He looked once more at Chatterer, who 
was racing along the top of the old wall 
scolding at the dog. Suddenly what 
seemed like merely a darker shadow 
swept over Chatterer, and, when it had 
passed, he had vanished. For once, 
that fatal once, he had been careless. 
Hooty the Owl had caught him. 
Tommy shivered. He was frightened 
and cold. He would get to his nest as 
quickly as he could. He leaped down 
to a great gray stone, and — behold, he 
wasn’t a squirrel at all! He was just 
a boy sitting on a big stone, with a heap 
of Christmas greens at his feet. 

He shivered, for he was cold. Then 
he jumped up and stamped his feet and 
threshed his arms. A million diamond 
points glittered in the white meadows 


A FRIEND OF RED SQUIRRELS 55 

where the snow crystals splintered the 
sunbeams. From the Old Orchard 
sounded the sharp scolding chirr and 
cough of Chatterer the Red Squirrel. 

Tommy listened and slowly a smile 
widened. “Hooty didn’t get you after 
all!” he muttered. Then in a minute 
he added: “I’m glad of it. And you 
haven’t anything more to fear from me. 
You won’t believe it, but you haven’t. 
You may be mischievous, but I guess 
you have troubles enough without me 
adding to them. Oh, but I’m glad I’m 
not a squirrel! Being a boy’s good 
enough for me, ’specially ’long ’bout 
Christmas time. I guess Sis will be 
tickled with these greens. But it’s 
queer what happens when I sit down on 
this old rock!” 

He frowned at it as if he couldn’t 


56 tommy’s wishes come true 
understand it at all. Then he gathered 
up his load of greens, and, with the mer- 
riest of whistles, trudged homeward. 
And to this day Chatterer the Red Squir- 
rel cannot understand how it came about 
that from that Christmas he and Tommy 
became fast friends. But they did. 

Perhaps the wishing-stone could tell 
if it would. 


CHAPTER THREE 


THE PLEASURES AND TROUBLES OF BOBBY 
COON 

T OMMY was trudging down to 
the corn-field, and his freckled 
face was rather sober. At least 
it was sober for him, considering why he 
was on his way to the corn-field. It 
wasn’t to work. If it had been, his 
sober look would have been quite easy 
to understand. The fact is, Tommy 
was going on an errand that once would 
have filled him with joy and sent him 
whistling all the way. 

“Coons are raising mischief down in 
the corn! You’d better get your traps 
out and see if you can catch the thieving 


58 tommy’s wishes come true 

little rascals. Go down and look the 
ground over, and see what you think,” 
his father had said to him at noon that 
day. 

So here he was on his way to look for 
signs of Bobby Coon, and, if the truth 
were known, actually hoping that he 
wouldn’t find them ! There had been a 
time when he would have been all ex- 
citement over his quest, and eager to 
find the tell-tale tracks where Bobby 
Coon went into and out of the corn-field. 
Then he would have hurried home for 
his traps in great glee, or instead would 
have planned to watch with his gun for 
Bobby that very night. 

But now he had no such feelings. 
Somehow, he had come to regard his lit- 
tle wild neighbors in a wholly different 
light. He no longer desired to do them 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 59 

harm. Ever since he had begun to learn 
what their real lives were like, by 
wishing himself one of them as he sat 
on the old wishing-stone, he had cared 
less and less to hunt and frighten them 
and more and more to try to make 
friends with them. 

His teacher would have said that he 
had a “sympathetic understanding” of 
them, and then probably would have had 
to explain to Tommy what that meant — 
that he knew just how they felt and had 
learned to look at things from their point 
of view. And it was true. He had put 
away his gun and traps. He no 
longer desired to kill. He liked to 
hunt for these little wild people as much 
as ever, perhaps more, but it was in order 
to make friends with them, and to find 


60 tommy’s wishes come true 
out more about their ways and habits, 
instead of to kill them. 

So it was that he didn’t like his pres- 
ent errand. On the brow of the hill that 
overlooked the corn-field he stopped for 
a minute to look down on the broad acres 
of long-leaved stalks standing row on 
row, row on row, like a well drilled 
army. He thought of the long hours 
he had spent among them toiling with 
his hoe in the hot sunshine when the 
swimming-hole was calling to him, and 
a sudden sense of pride swept over him. 
The great sturdy plants no longer 
needed his hoe to keep the weeds down. 
The ears had filled out and were in the 
milk now. 

“Seems as if we could spare what lit- 
tle a coon wants,” muttered Tommy, as 
he gazed down on the field. “Of course, 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 6l 

if there is a whole family of ’em, some- 
thing’s got to be done, but I don’t be- 
lieve one coon can eat enough to do much 
harm. Dad promised me a share in the 
crop, when it’s harvested, to pay for my 
work. It isn’t likely to be very much, 
and goodness knows I want every penny 
of it; but I guess, if that coon isn’t doing 
too much damage, I can pay for it.” 

Tommy’s face lighted up at the idea. 
It was going to take self-denial on his 
part, but it was a way out. The thought 
chased the soberness from his face and 
put a spring into his hitherto reluctant 
steps. He went at once to that part of 
the corn-field nearest the Green Forest. 
It did not take him long to discover the 
evidences that a raccoon, or perhaps 
more than one, had been taking toll. 
Here a stalk less sturdy than its neigh- 


62 tommy’s wishes come true 
bors had been pulled down, the husks, 
stripped from the ears, and a few mouth- 
fuls of the milky grains taken. There 
a stalk had been climbed and an ear 
stripped and bitten into. 

“Wasteful little beggar!” muttered 
Tommy. “Why can’t you be content 
to take an ear at a time and clean it up 4 ? 
Then there would be no kick coming. 
Dad wouldn’t mind if you filled your 
little tummy every night, if you didn’t 
spoil ten times as much as you eat. Ha ! 
here are your tracks. Now we’ll see 
where you come in.” 

Except for the sharp tips of the toes, 
the tracks were not unlike the print of 
a tiny hand, and there was no mistak- 
ing them for the tracks of any other an- 
imal. Tommy studied them until he 
was sure that all were made by one rac- 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 63 
coon, and he was convinced that he had 
but one to deal with. 

At length he found the place where 
the animal was in the habit of entering 
the field. There was just the sugges- 
tion of a path through the grass in the 
direction of the Green Forest. It was 
very clear that Bobby Coon came and 
went regularly that way, and of course 
this was the place to set a trap. 
Tommy’s face clouded again at the 
thought. 

“ I believe I’ll go up to the old wish- 
ing-stone and think it out,” he muttered. 

So he headed for the familiar old wish- 
ing-stone that overlooked the Green 
Meadows and the corn-field, and was 
not so very far from the Green Forest; 
and when he reached it, he sat down. 
It is doubtful if Tommy ever got past 


64 tommy’s wishes come true 

that old stone without sitting down on 
it. This time he had no intention of 
wishing himself into anything, yet hard- 
ly had he sat down when he did. You 
see his thoughts were all of Bobby Coon, 
and so, without stopping to think where 
he was, he said to no one in particular : 
“There are some things I want to know 
about raccoons. I wish I could be one 
long enough to find out.” 

Tommy’s wish had come true. He 
was no longer Tommy the boy, but 
Tommy the coon. He was a thick-set, 
rather clumsy-looking gray-coated fel- 
low, with a black ringed tail and a black 
band across the eyes. His ears were 
sharp, and his face was not unlike that 
of Reddy Fox in its outline. His toes 
were long and bare; and when he 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 65 
walked, it was with his whole foot on 
the ground as a man does and as a bear 
does. In fact, although he didn’t know 
it, he was own cousin to Buster Bear. 

Tommy’s home was a hollow tree with 
the entrance high up. Inside he had a 
comfortable bed, and there he spent his 
days sleeping away the long hours of 
sunshine. Night was the time he liked 
best to be abroad, and then he roamed 
far and wide without fear. 

Reddy Fox he was not afraid of at all. 
In fact there was no one he feared much 
but man, and in the darkness of the 
night he thought he need not even fear 
him. 

Tommy’s hollow tree was in a swamp 
through which flowed a brook, and it was 
Tommy’s delight to explore this brook, 
sometimes up, sometimes down. In it 


66 tommy’s wishes come true 
were fish to be caught, and Tommy as a 
boy never delighted in fishing more than 
did Tommy as a coon. On moonlight 
nights he would steal softly up to a quiet 
pool and, on the very edge of it, possess 
himself in patience, as a good fisherman 
should. Presently a careless fish would 
swim within reach. A swift scoop with 
a black little paw with five sharp little 
hooks extended — and the fish would be 
high and dry on the shore. It was great 
fun. 

Sometimes he would visit marshy 
places where the frogs were making the 
night noisy with a mighty chorus. This 
was the easiest kind of hunting. He 
had only to locate the spot from which 
one of those voices issued, steal softly 
up, and there was one less singer, though 
the voice would hardly be missed in the 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 67 

great chorus. Occasionally he would 
take a hint from Jerry Muskrat and, 
where the water was very shallow, dig 
out a few mussels or fresh-water clams. 

At other times, just by way of varying 
his bill of fare, he would go hunting. 
This was less certain of results but ex- 
citing; and when successful, the reward 
was great. Especially was this so in the 
nesting season, and many a good mea] 
of eggs did Tommy have, to say noth- 
ing of tender young birds. Occasion- 
ally he prowled through the tree-tops in 
hope of surprising a family of young 
squirrels in their sleep. None knew 
better than he that in the light of day 
he could not catch them; but at night, 
when they could not see and he could, it 
was another matter. 

But fish, meat, and eggs were only a 


68 tommy’s wishes come true 
part of Tommy’s diet. Fruit, berries, 
and nuts in their season were quite as 
much to his liking, not to mention cer- 
tain tender roots. One day, quite by 
chance while he was exploring a hollow 
tree, he discovered that it already had 
tenants and that they were makers of the 
most delicious sweets he ever had tasted. 
In short, he almost made himself sick on 
wild honey, his long hair protecting him 
from the little lances of the bees. After 
that he kept a sharp eye out for sweets 
and so discovered that bumble-bees 
make their nests in the ground; and that 
while they contained a scant supply of 
honey, there was enough as a rule to 
make it worth while to dig them open. 

So T ommy grew fat and lazy. There 
was plenty to eat without working very 
hard for it, and he shuffled about in the 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 69 

Green Forest and along the Laughing 
Brook, eating whatever tempted him 
and having a good time generally. 

He dearly loved to play along the 
edge of the water and was as tickled as 
a child with anything bright and shiny. 
Once he found a bit of tin shining in 
the moonlight and spent most of the re- 
mainder of that night playing with it. 
About one thing he was very particular. 
If he had meat of any kind and there 
was water near, he always washed it 
carefully before eating. In fact Tommy 
was very neat. It was born in him. 

Sometimes daylight caught him far 
from his hollow tree. Then he would 
look for an old nest of a hawk or crow 
and curl up in it to sleep the day away. 
If none was handy and he could find no 
hollow tree or stump, he would climb a 


70 tommy’s wishes come true 
big tree and stretch himself flat along 
one of the big limbs and there sleep 
until the Black Shadows came creeping 
through the Green Forest. 

Once in a while he would be discov- 
ered by the sharp eyes of Sammy Jay or 
Blacky the Crow, and then life would 
be made miserable for him until he 
would be glad to wake up and seek some 
hiding-place where they could not see 
him. It was for this reason chiefly that 
he always tried to get back to his own 
snug den by the time jolly, round, red 
Mr. Sun shook his rosy blankets off and 
began his daily climb up in the blue, 
blue sky. 

One night he met Bobby Coon him- 
self. 

“Where do you live?” asked Tommy. 



\' 


ONCE IN A WHILE 


HE WOULD BE DISCOVERED 







PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 71 

“Over on the Mountain,” replied 
Bobby. 

“In a hollow tree?” asked Tommy. 
“No. Oh, my, no!” replied Bobby. 
“I’ve got the nicest den in a ledge of 
rock. No more hollow trees for me.” 
“Why not?” demanded Tommy. 
“They aren’t safe,” retorted Bobby. 
“I used to live in a hollow tree, but I’ve 
learned better. I guess you’ve never 
been hunted. When you’ve been nearly 
choked to death by smoke in your hol- 
low tree, or had it cut down with you in 
it and barely escaped by the skin of your 
teeth, you won’t think so much of hollow 
trees. Give me a good rocky den every 

. • j? 

time. 

“But where does the smoke come 
from, and why should my hollow tree 


72 tommy’s wishes come true 

be cut down*?” asked Tommy, to whom 
this was all new and very strange. 

“Hunters,” replied Bobby briefly. 
“You wait until the cool weather comes 
and you’ll find out what I mean.” 

“But who are the hunters and what do 
they hunt us for?” persisted Tommy. 

“My, but you are innocent!” retorted 
Bobby. “They are those two-legged 
creatures called men, and I don’t know 
what they hunt us for. They just do, 
that’s all. They seem to think it’s fun. 
I wish one of them would have to fight 
for his life. Perhaps he wouldn’t see so 
much fun in it then. It was last fall 
that they drove me out of my hollow 
tree, and they pretty nearly got me, too. 
But they won’t do it this year! You 
take my advice and get a den in the 
rocks. Then you can laugh at them.” 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 73 
“But what will they hunt me for? 
I haven’t done them any harm,” persist- 
ed Tommy. 

“That doesn’t have anything to do 
with it,” retorted Bobby. “They do it 
for fun . Have you tried the corn yet? 
It’s perfectly delicious. Come on and 
we’ll have a feast.” 

Now of course Tommy was ready for a 
feast. The very thought of it put every- 
thing else out of his head. He shuf- 
fled along behind Bobby Coon through 
the Green Forest, across a little stretch 
of meadow, and under the bars of a fence 
into a corn-field. For a minute he sat 
and watched Bobby. It was Tommy’s 
first visit to a corn-field and he didn’t 
know just what to do. But Bobby did. 
Oh, yes, Bobby did. * He stood up on 
his hind legs and pulled one of the more 


74 tommy’s wishes come true 
slender stalks down until he could get 
at the lowest ear. Then he stripped off 
the husk and took a huge bite of the ten- 
der milky kernels. 

“Um-m-m” said Bobby Coon, and 
took another. 

Tommy waited no longer. He found 
a stalk for himself, and two minutes 
later he was stuffing himself with the 
most delicious meal he ever had tasted. 
At least he thought so then. He forgot 
all about dens and hunters. He had 
no thought for anything but the feast 
before him. Here was plenty and to 
spare. 

He dropped the ear he was eating and 
climbed a big stalk to strip another ear. 
The first one was good but this one was 
better. Perhaps a third would be bet- 
ter still. So he sampled a third. The 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 75 
moon flooded the corn-field with silvery 
light. It was just the kind of a night 
that all raccoons love, and in that field 
of plenty Bobby and Tommy were per- 
fectly happy. They did not know that 
they were in mischief. How should 
they? The corn was no more than other 
green things growing of which they were 
free to help themselves. So they wan- 
dered about, taking here a bite and there 
a bite and wasting many times as much 
as they ate. 

Suddenly, in the midst of their good 
time, there sounded the yelp of a dog, 
and there was something about it that 
sent a chill of fright along Tommy’s 
backbone. It was an excited and joy- 
ous yelp and yet there was something 
threatening in it. It was followed by 
another yelp, and then another, each 


76 tommy’s wishes come true 

more excited than the others, and then 
it broke into a full-throated roar in 
which there was something fierce and 
terrifying. It was coming nearer 
through the corn. Tommy looked over 
to where he had last seen Bobby Coon. 
He wasn’t there, but a rustling of the 
corn-stalks beyond told him that Bobby 
was running, running for his life. 

Tommy was in a panic. He never 
had had to run for his life before. 
Where should he go? To the Green 
Forest of course, where there were trees 
to climb. In a tree he would be safe. 
Then he heard another sound, the shout 
of a man. He remembered what Bobby 
Coon had said about trees and a new 
fear took possession of him. While he 
still hesitated, the dog passed, only a 
few yards away in the corn. Tommy 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 77 
heard the rustle of the stalks and the roar 
of his savage voice. And then suddenly 
he knew that the dog was not after him. 
He was following the tracks of Bobby 
Coon. 

Swiftly Tommy stole through the 
corn and ran across the bit of meadow, 
his heart in his mouth, to the great black 
bulk of the Green Forest. He ran 
swiftly, surprisingly so for such a 
clumsy-looking fellow. How friendly 
the tall trees looked ! They seemed to 
promise safety. It was hard to believe 
that Bobby Coon was right and that they 
did not. He kept on, nor stopped until 
he was in his own hollow tree. The 
voice of the dog came to him, growing 
fainter and fainter in the direction of 
the mountain, and finally ceased alto- 


78 tommy’s wishes come true 

gether. He wondered if Bobby reached 
his den and was safe. 

Of one thing Tommy was certain: 
that corn-field was no place for him. So 
he kept away from it and tried not to 
think of how good that milky corn 
had tasted. So the summer passed 
and the fall came with falling leaves 
and sharp frosty nights. They gave 
Tommy even more of an appetite, 
though there had been nothing the mat- 
ter with that before. He grew fatter 
and fatter so that it made him puff to 
run. Unknown to him, Old Mother 
Nature was preparing him for the long 
winter sleep. 

By this time the memory of the dog 
and of what Bobby Coon had said about 
hollow trees had almost dropped from 
his mind. He was concerned over noth- 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 79 
ing but filling his stomach and enjoying 
those frosty moonlight nights. He in- 
terfered with no one and no one inter- 
fered with him. 

One night he had gone down to the 
Laughing Brook, fishing. Without 
warning, there broke out on the still air 
the horrid sound of that yelping dog. 
Tommy listened for just a minute. 
This time it was his trail that dog was 
following. There could be no doubt 
about it. Tommy turned and ran 
swiftly. But he was fat and heavy, and 
he could hear the dog gaining rapidly. 
Straight for his hollow tree fled Tommy, 
and even as he reached it the dog was 
almost at his heels. Up the tree 
scrambled Tommy and, from the safe 
vantage of a big limb which was the 
threshold of his home, he looked 


80 tommy’s wishes come true 
down. The dog was leaping up against 
the base of the tree excitedly and his 
voice had changed. He was barking. 
A feeling of relief swept over Tommy. 
The dog could not climb ; he was safe. 

But presently there were new sounds 
in the Green Forest, the shouting of 
men. Lights twinkled and drew nearer. 
Staring down from the edge of his hole, 
Tommy saw eager, cruel faces looking 
up. With a terrible fear gripping his 
heart he crept down into his bed. Pres- 
ently the tree shook with the jar of an 
ax. Blow followed blow. The tree 
vibrated to each blow and the vibrations 
passed through Tommy’s body so that 
it shook, but it shook still more with a 
nameless and terrible fear. 

At last there was a sharp cracking 
sound. Tommy felt himself falling 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 8l 
through space. He remembered what 
Bobby Coon had told him, and he won- 
dered if he would be lucky enough to 
escape as Bobby did. Then he shut his 
eyes tight, waiting for the crash when 
the tree should strike the ground. 

When he opened his eyes, he was — 
just Tommy sitting on the wishing-stone 
overlooking the Green Meadows. His 
face was wet with perspiration. Was it 
from the sun beating down upon him, or 
was it from the fear that had gripped 
him when that tree began to fall? A 
shudder ran over him at the memory. 
He looked over to the corn-field where 
he had found the tracks of Bobby Coon 
and the mischief he had wrought. 
What was he to do about it? > Somehow 
strangely his sympathy was with Bobby. 

“He doesn’t know any better,” mut- 


82 tommy’s wishes come true 

tered Tommy. “He thinks that corn 
belongs to him as much as to anybody 
else, and there isn’t any reason why he 
shouldn’t think so. It isn’t fair to trap 
him or kill him for something he doesn’t 
know he shouldn’t do. If he just knew 
enough to eat what he wants and not 
waste so much, I guess there wouldn’t 
be any trouble. He’s just like a lot of 
folks who have so much they don’t know 
what to do with it, only they know better 
than to waste it, and he doesn’t. I know 
what HI do. I’ll take Bowser down 
there to-night and give him a scare. I’ll 
give him such a scare that he won’t dare 
come back until the com is so hard he 
won’t want it. That’s what I’ll do! 

“My, it must be awful to think you’re 
safe and then find you’re trapped! I 
guess I won’t ever hunt coons any more. 


PLEASURES OF BOBBY COON 83 

I used to think it was fun, but I never 
thought how the coon must feel. Now I 
know and — and — well, a live coon is 
a lot more interesting than a dead one, 
anyway. Funny what I find out on this 
old wishing-stone. If I keep on, I won’t 
want to hunt anything any more.’’ 

Tommy got up, stretched, began to 
whistle as if there was a load off his 
mind, and started for home, still whis- 
tling. 

And his whistle was good to hear. 


CHAPTER FOUR 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER THE GOOSE 

T HE feel of spring was in the air. 
The sound of it filled Tommy’s 
ears. The smell of it filled his 
nostrils and caused him to take long, 
deep breaths. The sight of it gladdened 
his eyes, and the joy of it thrilled his 
heart. For the spring, you know, has 
really arrived only when it can be felt, 
heard, smelled, and seen, and has the 
power to fill all living things with 
abounding joy and happiness. 

Winter had been long in going. It 
seemed to Tommy that it never would 
go. He liked winter. Oh, yes, Tom- 
my liked winter! He liked to skate 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 85 

and slide, to build snow forts and 
houses, and make snow men. He liked 
to put on his snow-shoes and tramp 
through the Green Forest, for many are 
the secrets of the summer which the win- 
ter reveals to those with eyes to see, and 
Tommy was trying to train his eyes to 
be of that kind. But when it was time 
for winter to go, he wanted it to go 
quickly, and it hadn’t. It had dragged 
on and dragged on. To be sure, there 
had been a few springlike days, but they 
had been only an aggravation. 

But this day was different, and 
Tommy knew that at last spring had ar- 
rived. It was not that it was long past 
time, for it was now almost April. It 
was something more. It was just a 
something that, throbbing all through 
him, told him that this time there was no 


86 tommy’s wishes come true 
mistake — spring was really here. There 
was a softness in the touch of gentle Sis- 
ter Southwind which was like a caress. 
From over in the Green Forest came the 
gurgle of the Laughing Brook, and min- 
gling with it was the soft whistle of 
Winsome Bluebird, the cheery song of 
Welcome Robin, the joyous greeting of 
Little Friend the Song-sparrow, the clear 
lilt of Carol the Meadow-lark, the sweet 
love call of Tommy Tit, the Chickadee, 
and under all a subdued murmur, sensed 
rather than really heard, as of a gentle 
stirring of reawakened life. So Tommy 
heard the spring. 

And in each long breath he drew there 
was the odor of damp, warm soil such as 
the earth gives up only at this season. 
And so Tommy smelled the spring. 

And looking from the top of the hill 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 87 

above the wishing-stone down across the 
Green Meadows to the Old Pasture and 
beyond to the Purple Hills, he saw all 
as through a soft and beautiful haze, 
which was neither fog nor smoke, but as 
if old Mother Nature had drawn an ex- 
quisite veil over the face of the earth 
until it should be made beautiful. And 
so Tommy saw the spring. 

He whistled joyously as he tramped 
down to the dear old wishing-stone and 
sat down on it, his hands clasped about 
his crossed knees. Seasons came and 
went, but the wishing-stone, the great, 
gray stone which overlooked the Green 
Meadows, remained always the same. 
How many, many winters it must have 
seen go, and how many, many springs 
it must have seen come, some early and 


88 tommy’s wishes come true 
some, like this one, late, but all 
beautiful! 

In all the years it had been there how 
many of old Mother Nature’s children, 
little people in fur, little people in 
feathers, little people in scaly suits, and 
little people with neither fur nor feath- 
ers nor scales, but with gauzy or beauti- 
fully colored wings, or crawling with 
many feet, must have rested there just 
as he was doing now ! 

Somehow Tommy always got to 
thinking of these little people whenever 
he sat on the wishing-stone. From it he 
had watched many of them and learned 
much of their ways. But he had learned 
still more by wishing. That seems 
queer, but it was so. He had wished 
that he was a meadow-mouse, and no 
sooner had he wished it than he had 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 89 

been one. In turn he had wished him- 
self into a red squirrel, a rabbit, and a 
mink, and he had lived their lives ; had 
learned how they work and play; how 
sometimes they have plenty, but quite as 
often go hungry, sometimes very hun- 
gry, and how always they are under the 
shadow of fear, and the price of life is 
eternal watchfulness. 

“I suppose some people would say 
that I fell asleep and dreamed it all, but 
I know better, 5 ’ said Tommy. “If they 
were dreams, why don’t I have the same 
kind at home in bed? But it’s only out 
here on this old stone when I wish I were 
something that I become it. So of 
course it isn’t a dream! Now I think 
of it, every single time I’ve wished 
myself one of these little animals, it 
has been because I thought they had 


go tommy’s wishes come true 
a better and an easier time than I do, 
and every time I’ve been mighty glad 

that I’m just what I am. I wonder ” 

He paused a minute, for a sudden 
thought had popped into his head. “I 
wonder,” he finished, “if those wishes 
came true just to teach me not to be dis- 
contented. I wonder if a wish would 
come true if I weren’t discontented!” 

He was still wondering when, float- 
ing down out of the sky, came a clear 
“Honk, honk , honk , k'honk , honk , honk , 
k’honk .” Instantly Tommy turned his 
freckled face and eager eyes skyward. 

“Wild geese!” he exclaimed. 

“Honk, honk, k'honk, honk!” The 
sound was loud and clear, but it seemed 
to come from nowhere in particular and 
everywhere in general. Of course it 
came from somewhere up in the sky, but 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 91 
it was very hard to place it as from any 
particular part. It was a good two min- 
utes before Tommy’s eyes, sharp as they 
were, found what he was looking for — 
a black wedge moving across the sky, a 
wedge made up of little, black living 
spots. At least they looked little. 
That was because they were so high, so 
very high in the sky. 

He knew that each of those black 
spots was a great, broad-winged bird — 
a Canada goose. He could see the long 
outstretched necks as tiny black lines. 
One behind another in two long lines 
which met in a letter V, like well-drilled 
soldiers maintaining perfect formation, 
the leader at the apex of the V, and be- 
hind him each bird a given distance from 
the one in front, they moved steadily 
across the sky, straight into the north. 


92 tommy’s wishes come true 

“Honk, honk, k’honk, honk, k’honk, 
k'honk, honk!" There was something 
indescribably thrilling in the sound. It 
made the blood leap and race through 
Tommy’s veins. Long after the living 
wedge had passed beyond his vision 
those clarion notes rang in his ears — 
“honk, honk, k’honk, honk, k’honk, 
k'honk, honk!” They were at once a 
challenge and a call to the wild freedom 
of the great wilderness. They filled his 
heart with a great longing. It swelled 
and pulsed with a vast desire. 

“Oh,” he sighed, “it must be great to 
be able to fly like that. I would rather 
fly than do anything I know of. I envy 
old Honker in the lead there, I do. I 
wish I could join him this very minute !” 

Of course that wish had slipped out 
unthinkingly. But that made no dif- 



“it must be great to be 

THAT ’ ’ 


ABLE TO FLY LIKE 


f 




HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 93 

ference. Tommy had wished, and now 
here he was high in the air, no longer a 
boy, but a great bird, the last one in a 
long line of great birds beating the thin 
air with stout, tireless wings as they fol- 
lowed Honker, the leader, straight into 
the North. Far, far below lay the Great 
World. It seemed to Tommy that he 
had no part in it now. A fierce tumultu- 
ous joy surged through him and demand- 
ed expression. Spring had come, and 
he must tell those plodding creatures, 
mere specks, crawling on the distant 
earth. Honk, honk, k'honk, honk, 
k'honk! 

Never in all his life had Tommy felt 
such a thrill as possessed him now. 
Looking down, he saw brown meadows 
and pastures showing just a hint of green 
here and there, green forests and bare 


94 tommy’s wishes come true 

woodlands, silver threads, which he 
knew to be rivers, shining spots which 
were lakes and ponds, and villages 
which looked like toys. 

Once they passed over a great city, 
but it did not look great at all. Seen 
through the murk of the smoke from 
many factory chimneys, it was not un- 
like an ant-hill which had been opened, 
— tiny black objects, which were really 
men, women, children, horses, and mo- 
tor-cars, seeming to hurry aimlessly in 
all directions, for all the world like ants. 

So all day they flew, crying the glad 
message of the spring to the crawling 
things below. Just a little while before 
the setting of the sun, Honker, the lead- 
er, slanted down toward a shining spot 
in the heart of a great forest, and the 
others followed. Rapidly the shining 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 95 
spot grew in size until below them lay 
a pond far from the homes of men, and 
to the very middle of this Honker led 
the way, while the whole flock broke 
into excited gabbling, for they had 
flown far and were tired. With a splash 
Honker struck the water, and with 
splash after splash the others followed, 
Tommy the last, because, you know, he 
was at the end of one of those long lines. 

Then for a while they rested, the wise 
old leader scanning the shores with keen 
eyes for possible danger. Satisfied that 
all was well, he gave a signal and led the 
way to a secluded cove where the water 
was shallow and the shore marshy. It 
was clear that he had been there before, 
and had come with a purpose. Slowly 
they swam, Honker well in the lead, 
necks held high, the eyes of all alert and 


g6 tommy's wishes come true 

studying the nearing shore. There was 
no honking now, not a sound. To 
Tommy, in his inexperience, such watch- 
fulness seemed needless. What pos- 
sible danger could there be in such a 
lonely placed But he wisely kept his 
place and did as the others did. 

At length they were close to shore, and 
Honker gave a low signal which meant 
that all was well. Instantly the for- 
mation was broken, and with a low, con- 
tented gabbling the flock began feeding 
on eel-grass, roots, and sedges from the 
mud at the bottom. For an hour they 
fed, then they swam about, or sat on the 
shore preening their feathers while the 
shadows deepened. But all the time 
Honker and some of the older ganders 
with eyes and ears alert were on guard. 
And when at last Tommy put his head 


* 



HONKER ON THE WATCH 



HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 97 
under his wing to sleep, a great content 
filled his heart. 

The next day was much like the first. 
With break of day they had breakfasted, 
and then, at a signal from Honker, they 
had mounted up, up into the blue vault, 
and all day they had heralded the spring 
to the earth below as they flew into the 
north. So it was the next day and the 
next, wise old Honker leading them to 
some chosen secluded resting-place each 
night. 

Gradually the face of the earth below 
changed. There were no more cities. 
The villages became smaller and farther 
between, and at last they saw no more, 
only here and there a lonely farm. 
Great forests and lakes succeeded each 
other, the air grew colder, but with his 


98 tommy’s wishes come true 
thick coat of feathers Tommy minded it 
not at all. 

Then, one day, they found they had 
outflown the spring. Below them the 
earth was still frozen and snow-covered. 
The ponds and lakes were still ice- 
bound. Reluctantly Honker turned 
back to their last stopping-place and 
there for a week they rested in peace and 
security, though not in contentment, for 
the call of the North, the Far North, 
with its nesting-grounds, was ever with 
them, and made them impatient and 
eager to be on their way. The daily 
flights were shorter now, and there were 
frequent rests of days at a time, for 
spring advanced slowly, and they must 
wait for the unlocking of the lakes and 
rivers. The forests changed; the trees 
became low and stunted. At last they 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 99 

came to a vast region of bogs and 
swamps and marshes around shallow 
lakes and ponds, a great lonely wilder- 
ness, a mighty solitude. At least that 
is what Tommy would have thought it 
had he been a boy or a man instead of 
a smart young gander. 

It was neither lonely nor a solitude 
to him now, but the haven which had 
been the object of those hundreds of 
miles of strong-winged flight. It was 
the nesting-ground. It was home ! 
And how could it be lonely with flock 
after flock of his own kind coming in 
every hour of every day; with thou- 
sands of ducks pouring in in swift 
winged flight, and countless smaller 
birds, all intent on home-building? 

The flock broke up into pairs, each 
intent on speedily securing a home of 


100 tommy’s wishes come tree 

their own. On the ground they made 
great nests of small sticks and dead grass 
with a soft lining of down. In each 
presently were four or five big eggs. 
And soon there were downy goslings — 
scores and scores of them — in the water 
with their mothers for the first swimming 
lesson. 

Then the old birds had to be more 
vigilant than before, for there were dan- 
gers, many of them, even in that far wil- 
derness : prowling foxes, hungry lynxes, 
crafty mink, hawks, fierce owls, each 
watching for the chance to dine on ten- 
der young goose. So the summer, short 
in that far northern region, passed, and 
the young birds grew until they were 
as large as their parents, and able to 
care for themselves. 

Cold winds swept down out of the 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 101 

frozen Arctic Ocean with warning that 
already winter had begun the south- 
ward march. Then began a great gath- 
ering of the geese, and a dividing into 
flocks, each with a chosen leader, chosen 
for his strength, his wisdom, and his 
ability to hold his leadership against all 
comers. Many a battle between ambi- 
tious young ganders and old leaders did 
Tommy see, but he wisely forbore to 
challenge old Honker, the leader who 
had led the way north, and when the lat- 
ter gathered the flock for the journey 
he was one of the first to fall in line. 

A thousand plus a thousand miles and 
more stretched before them as they 
turned to the south, but to the strength 
of their broad wings the distance was 
as nothing. But this was to be a very 
different journey from their trip north, 


102 tommy’s wishes come true 

as Tommy soon found out. Then they 
had been urged on day by day by a great 
longing to reach their destination. Now 
in place of longing was regret. There 
was no joy in the going. They were 
going because they must. They had no 
choice. Winter had begun its south- 
ward march. 

The flights were comparatively short, 
for where food was good they stayed un- 
til some subtle sense warned old Honker 
that it was time to be moving. It was 
when they had left the wilderness and 
reached the great farm-lands that they 
lingered longest. There in the stubble 
of the grain fields was feed a-plenty, and 
every morning at dawn, and again every 
afternoon, an hour or so before sun- 
down, Honker led the way to the fields. 
During the great part of the day and all 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER IO3 
night they rested and slept on the bar 
of a river, or well out on the bosom of a 
lake. 

It was now that Tommy learned a 
new respect for the cunning of the wise 
old leader, and also that terrible fear 
which comes sooner or later to all wild 
creatures — the fear of man. Time and 
again, as they approached their chosen 
feeding-ground, there would come a 
sharp signal from Honker, and he would 
abruptly turn the direction of the flight 
and lead them to another and much 
poorer feeding-ground. Yet, look as he 
would, Tommy could see no cause, no 
danger. 

At first Tommy thought it was be- 
cause other geese seemed to have reached 
the feeding-ground first. He could see 
them standing stiffly as if watching the 


104 tommy’s wishes come true 

newcomers, near them a harmless little 
heap of straw. He knew that the feed- 
ing was better there, and he wanted to 
go, but the spirit of obedience was strong 
within him, and he followed with the 
rest. Once he voiced his disapproval 
to another bird as they settled some dis- 
tance away where it was more work to 
find the scattered grain. 

“Watch!” he replied in a low tone. 
“There comes a flock led by that young 
upstart who fought and defeated his 
old leader the day before we left home. 
He is leading them straight over there.” 

Tommy watched. Suddenly from 
that harmless-looking little heap of 
straw there sprang two spurts of flame, 
followed by two sharp reports that 
struck terror to his heart. Even as he 
beat his way into the air, he looked and 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER IO5 
saw that foolish young leader and two 
of his flock falling, stricken and helpless, 
to the earth, and a man leap from under 
the straw to pick them up. «Then he 
understood, and a new loyalty to old 
Honker grew in his heart. 

But in spite of the ever-present dan- 
ger Honker kept his flock there, for 
food was good and plentiful, and he had 
faith in himself, and his flock had faith 
in him. So they lingered, until a driv- 
ing snow squall warned them that they 
must be moving. Keeping just ahead 
of the on-coming winter, they journeyed 
south, and at every stopping-place they 
found men and guns waiting. There 
was no little pond so lonely but that 
death might be lurking there. 

Sometimes the call of their own kind 
would come up to them. Looking down, 


106 tommy’s wishes come true 
they would see geese swimming in seem- 
ing security and calling to them to come 
down and join them. More than once 
Honker set his wings to accept the invi- 
tation, only to once more beat his way 
upward as his keen eyes detected some- 
thing amiss on the shore. And so 
Tommy learned the baseness of man 
who would use their own kind to decoy 
them to death. 

Came at last a sudden swift advance 
of cold weather which forced them to 
fly all night. When day broke, they 
were weary of wing, and, worse, the air 
was thick with driving snow. For the 
first time, Tommy beheld Honker uncer- 
tain. He still led the flock, but he led 
he knew not where, for in the driving 
snow none could see. 

Low they flew now, but a little way 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 10J 

above the earth, making little progress 
against the driving storm, and so weary 
of wing that it was all they could do to 
keep their heavy bodies up. It was then 
that the welcome honk of other geese 
came up to them, and, heading in the di- 
rection of the calling voices and honking 
back their distress, they discovered 
water below, and gladly, oh, so gladly, 
set their wings and dropped down into 
this haven of refuge. 

Hardly had the first ones hit the water 
when, bang! bang! bang! bang! the fate- 
ful guns roared, and when, out of the 
confusion into which they were thrown, 
they once more gathered behind their old 
leader far out in the middle of the pond, 
some of the flock were missing. 

In clear weather they flew high, and 
it happened on such a day that, as 


108 tommy’s wishes come true 
Tommy looked down, there stirred 
within him a strange feeling. Below 
stretched a green forest with broad 
meadows beyond, and farther still an 
old brush-grown pasture. Somehow it 
was wonderfully familiar. Eagerly he 
looked. There should be something 
more. Ah, there it was — an old gray 
boulder overlooking the meadows ! 
Like a magnet, it seemed to draw 
Tommy down to itself. “Honk, honk , 
honk , k’honk!” Tommy heard the call 
of his old leader faintly, as if from a 
distance. 

“Honk, honk, honk, k'honk, honk, 
k’honk, honk!” Tommy opened his eyes 
and rubbed them confusedly. Where 
was he? “Honk, honk, honk, k'honk , 
honk, k’honk!” He looked up. There, 
high in the blue sky, was a living wedge 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER IO9 

pointing straight into the North, and the 
joy of the spring was in the wild clamor 
that came down to him. 

Slowly he rose from the old wishing- 
stone, and, with his hands thrust in his 
pockets, watched the flock until it was 
swallowed up in the distant haze. Long 
he stood gazing through unseeing eyes 
while the wild notes still came to him 
faintly, and the joy of them rang in his 
heart. But there was no longing there 
now, only a vast content . 

“It must be great to fly like that!” 
he murmured. “It must be great, 

but ” He drew a long breath as 

he looked over the meadows to the Old 
Pasture and heard and saw and felt the 
joy of the spring — “this is good enough 
for me ! 55 he finished. “I don’t envy 
that old leader a bit. It may be glor- 


no (tommy’s wishes come true 

ious to be wild and free, to look down 
and see the Great World, and all that, 
but it’s more glorious to be safe and 
carefree, and — and just a boy. No, I 
don’t envy old Honker a little bit. But 
isn’t he wonderful! I — I don’t see 
what men want to hunt him for and try 
to kill him. They wouldn’t if they knew 
how wonderful he is. I never will. 
No, sir. I never will! I know how it 
feels to be hunted, and — and it’s dread- 
ful. That’s what it is — dreadful! I 
know! And it’s all because of the old 
wishing-stone. I’m glad I know, and 
— and — gee, I’m glad it’s spring!” 

“Honk, honk, honk, k'honk, honk, 
k'honk .” Another flock of geese were 
passing over, and Tommy knew that 
they, too, were glad, oh, so glad, that 
it was spring ! 


HOW TOMMY ENVIED HONKER 111 

Two of Tommy’s acquaintances, 
Reddy Fox and Jerry Muskrat, he 
thought he knew all about, but he found 
that there was much he didn’t know. 
And there were two who live deep in the 
Great Woods whom he had never seen, 
Paddy the Beaver and Buster Bear. So 
to the friendly old wishing-stone Tom- 
my went and what he learned there you 
may learn from the next volume, Tom- 
my’s Change of Heart. 


THE BURGESS BIRD BOOK 
FOR CHILDREN 


By THORNTON W. BURGESS 
With full-color illustrations of 58 birds from drawings by 
Louis Agassiz Fuertes 
Crown 8 vo. Cloth. $3.00 net. 


“For a number of years parents have been asking me, ‘What 
is the best book about birds for little children?* And that ques- 
tion has given me much trouble. Now, ‘The Burgess Bird Book 
for Children’ is the answer. In fact, it is the very book that 
‘Anxious Mother,’ the children and the booksellers have been 
awaiting, for twenty years or more.”— Dr. William T. Hornaday, 
Director , New York Zoological Society. 


A companion volume 

THE BURGESS ANIMAL BOOK 
FOR CHILDREN 

With 32 full-page illustrations in color and 16 full-page illustrations 
in black and white by 
Louis Agassiz Fuertes 

Crown 8vo. Cloth. $3.00 net. 


This companion volume to “The Burgess Bird Book for 
Children” is written in the same vein, a story book which is at 
the same time an authoritative handbook on the land animals of 
America, so describing them and their habits that they will be 
instantly recognized when seen. 


LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers 
34 Beacon Street, Boston 


GREEN MEADOW 
SERIES 


By THORNTON W. BURGESS 

With eight illustrations in full color by Harrison Cady 
Crown 8vo. Cloth. 4vols. $1.75 net each 

The first volume in this new series is — 

HAPPY JACK 

Mr. Burgess is well acquainted with Happy Jack Squirrel’s 
thrifty habits, and tells all about them in this first book. 

The second volume is — 

MRS. PETER RABBIT 

Mr. Burgess tells how Little Miss Fuzzy tail became Mrs. 
Peter Rabbit, and set up housekeeping in the Old Briar Patch. 

The third volume is — 

BOWSER THE HOUND 

In this book Mr. Burgess tells how Bowser the Hound lost 
his way while following the trail of Old Man Coyote. 

The fourth volume is — 

OLD GRANNY FOX 

In this new book Mr. Burgess tells how Old Granny Fox 
shows little Reddy Fox how to obtain food during the long, 
cold winter. 


LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers 
34 Beacon St., Boston 



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